Film Review: Friday the 13th – Part 4 (1984)

SYNOPSIS:

Hockey-masked psychopath Jason Vorhees (Ted White) is back in business at Camp Crystal Lake in the fourth (but far from final) installment of the popular, long-running horror series. As randy teens are slain one by one, Tommy (Corey Feldman) comes up with a plan to distract the killer. Makeup master Tom Savini provides much of the gore, and actor Crispin Glover turns in an unusual performance as a stud in training.

REVIEW:

This is the one that comes to everyone’s mind when you ask them which is your “favorite” Friday the 13th. While I’m partial to part 3 for its 3d effects this really is the best entry in the whole series. Why you ask? I don’t know if I have enough room to get to it all.

First and foremost, for me the one factor that has put this way over the top for has been the inclusion of Tom Savini back into the series. It would only make sense that the man who essentially created Jason was brought back to kill him off. Tom is at the peak of his powers in “The Final Chapter”. While yes as always he’s limited by the films budget it’s a joy to watch the master work his magic. You get some great gags like several knifed torsos, ripped off heads, a meat cleaver to Crispin Glover’s face and my personal favorite, the old knife through the fat chicks neck trick. Savini also breaths some fresh air into Jason as he once again tweaks his look. Jason now looks like some sort of troll or monster, much more bestial as compared to his earlier looks but the hockey mask is still there.

Filling Steve Miner’s large shoes is Joseph Zito who at the time was fresh off the highly under rated “Prowler”. Zito brings a fast paced exploitation style the series was beginning to lack. The tongue is firmly is cheek and they never forget why the audience is really there; they want to watch Jason kill people. The only downside to Zito is there are clearly a few moments where they could have just cut a scene out. In particular the death of Gordon the dog, the scene it filmed and cut so poorly you’re never sure if the dog is thrown from the window by Jason or he just kills himself.

The acting is also kicked up a few notches by the inclusion of the uber eccentric Crispin Glover. While his performance is nothing to write home to the academy about you can defiantly tell he’s on a level the other f*ck-tards in this aren’t. The only person that maybe holds a candle to Crispin’s manic performance as Jimbo in “The Final Chapter” has to be a 12 year old Corey Feldman and that’s more on the fact he’s “f*cking Corey Feldman” and not a great actor. You can clearly tell there are moments all over the movie where Crispin goes off the script and just begins to ad lib his character, none more evident than his infamous dance number as seen below. Seriously either the director is blind or they gave up trying to reign in Crispin and gave into his interpretive dance demands.

Apparently the original song was an AC DC tune but the producers went with Lion’s Love is a Lie instead; if Crispin is any indicator they used the soundtrack from cats. Also why does every f*cking Friday have a character that clearly no one would be friends with hanging around? Seriously what the hell is wrong with Jimbo?

“The Final Chapter” is also the first time in the Friday universe where someone proactively does something about Jason. Not only do you have Mr. Flannel himself Rob actively hunting Jason down for killing his sister, you also have Trish and Tommy Jarvis beating the f*ck out of Jason every second they get. By this point in the series you really begin to wonder why no one tries to stand up to Jason instead of just running, well it’s nice to see some one finally doing something even if it does little to actually stop Jason. It’s kind of ironic that the one to finally bring down Jason is a 12 year old boy.

Friday the 13th part 4 the final chapter is by and far the best entry in the series and if you have to watch just one, watch this one.

Odd ramblings:

There are also some genuinely if be it unintentionally funny moments in “The Final Chapter” that I just love.

– First of all any scene with Crispin Glover, his Jimbo character defies logic at every step and you just never believe he can manage to get laid, and that’s pretty f*cking funny.

-Corey Feldman’s Tommy Jarvis character has a freak-out when he gets a glimpse of boobs. I like sweater puppies just as much as the next man but I don’t bounce around like a retarded kid in McDonalds when I see them.

-A chubby and possibly mute hippy girl gets stabbed in the neck while she eats a banana. I’m not sure what’s so funny about it, is it the banana? Or just how retarded the scene is?

For me I laugh hardest not at Crispin Glover’s awesome Love is a lie dance but at Rob’s death scene. For some reason the f*cking meat head needs to scream everything that’s happening to him while he dies “Oh god he’s killing me, oh Jesus now he’s stabbing me, aw he has a knife, I’m dying ahh…..” I just find it hilarious that he needed to add commentary while he died.

On the character of Tommy Jarvis:

At long last a foil for Jason.

There really isn’t anything special about Tommy Jarvis beyond the fact he’s smart enough to finish the job. In almost every single slasher movie out there they just walk away exhausted when they finally get the killer to stop moving for more than a minute. Tommy despite being 12 has enough brains to make sure Jason is dead for good by cutting him to pieces. Can you imagine the Halloween franchise if they spent an extra minute to make sure Michael was dead? I’m sure if his sister didn’t calm him down Tommy would have stuffed Jason in a wood chipper and then set those pieces on fire to make sure we don’t get chunks of Voorhees sinking into the soil to grow weird cabbage patch Jason’s. He’s a fun character that thankfully gets to stick around a while, it’s a shame it wasn’t Corey Feldman the whole time.

On Jason Voorhees:
By now its clear there is something abnormal about Jason. Surviving drowning, a machete wound to the shoulder and an axe to the head is pretty f*cking ridiculous. My guess is either he has the brain the size of a pea like a dinosaur and massive blows to the head don’t do much or he died each and every time he got those injuries and was brought back by the sheer rage. Rage about what? Who knows, f*cking next to his dead body seemed to piss him off, really it would piss me off too, I mean come on its bad enough you have an axe in your head do you really need some jack off’s playing grab ass next to your corpse? I’d come back from the dead too to kill you for that.

Friday the 13th offences punishable by death:

1: Smoking Pot
2. Drinking
2. Pre-marital sex
3. Being a tool (see: the Steve Christy character)
4. Using the bathroom after sex
5. Trying to get laid, and failing
6. Opening Camp Crystal Lake despite everything everyone including crazy Ralph has been telling you.
7. Having the name Kevin Bacon
8. Being crippled and trying to overcome your handicap via some poon tang
9. Tying a sweater around your neck (legend has it yuppies got so scared from this they stopped doing it)
10. Letting your pet bunny live in the produce department of your sh*tty mom and pop grocery store.
11. Drinking sunny delight
12. Taking a sh*t without wiping
13. Using “Class of Nukem High” as your fashion template
14. Thinking that a girl will like you if you repeatedly fake your death around her and scare the sh*t out of her as an under water hockey goalie
15. Walking around on your hands when you have f*cking feet that do the same thing
16. Reading Fangoria after sex. Everyone knows Fangoria is bathroom reading; Gorezone is what you want after a good ass pounding

New*
17. Being a fat hippy hitch hiker that tries to eat healthy
18. Fucking within proximity of Jason even if he’s dead
19. Falling in love
20. Watching vintage p*rn
21. Interpretive dancing
22. Singing in the shower
23. Skinny dipping
24. Wearing a flannel in summer
25. Being one of those irritating double mint gum twins.